Voice Search
Voice search has arrived and is here to stay! Statista reports that the number of digital voice assistants (ie. Siri or Alexa) will increase to 8.4 billion units by 2024. This is a huge increase in comparison to 3.25 million units in 2019. Business owners that invest in voice search optimization early will benefit the rewards and dominate the voice search ranking before their competition can catch up!
Google is taking huge steps to keep up with the new trend of Voice Searches. Google released information about their new artificial intelligence (AI) technology called Multitask Unified Model, also known as MUM. MUM has the potential to transform how search engines (Google) help consumers with complex tasks. Google report’s MUM is 1,000 times more powerful than Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) which is the technology Google is currently using. MUM has the capability to understand and generate results across 75 different languages at once, it understands information through; text, video and audio making your search results more in depth than ever! Below illustrates an example of what the new MUM technology can do to a search query about how to prepare for a hike of MT. Fuji in comparison to MT. Adams.
To prepare for this new era of voice searching, here are a few tips to optimize your SEO strategy.
- Add a FAQ Section to your website. This offers an easy option that includes your question keywords and includes answers that can be read to the voice searcher easily!
- Write how you speak and add filler words to optimize your keywords into a smoother and more natural sentence or question. Instead of “Mt. Fuji climb supplies” you could add, “What supplies do I need for climbing Mt. Fuji?”
- Don’t forget to add answers to your questions!
Optimize your Featured Snippets for Voice Search. Featured snippets are easy to scan and provide a trusted answer without leaving the SERP. This means that if Google can find the answer through your Featured snippets you have a higher chance of gaining that search traffic!
User Experience
SEO is a dynamic field and we understand the importance of future-proofing your website. Most people don’t think about SEO in terms of how their content will age, but it’s one key ingredient to ensuring long term success for both your company or business owner as well as consumers looking up information on these sites over time.
We often talk with clients about scalability – does this strategy feel like it’s big enough now? And flexibility: what happens if something changes (e.g., regulation)? User experience metrics such page speed can also make or break an agency’s ability at work; conversion rate optimization might seem daunting initially but downfalls typically come from neglecting important best practices!
Accessibility
Accessibility has become increasingly important over the past few years and it does not seem to be slowing down!
Metadata has become standard within organic search listings and are significant factors for your search engine rankings and CTR. Another huge factor of optimizing your metadata includes accessibility for those using assistive technology such as screen readers.
Alternative text (alt text) is an HTML attribute that’s used to describe images. It can be very helpful for those with visual impairments, who rely on screen readers and are able to find information through pictures instead of words alone. The importance increases as Google begins crawling websites differently through their new technology, MUM. As talked about above, MUM will have the capability to crawl more than just the text on your website, it can also search through images and video making alt text optimization more important than ever!
Writing link anchor text is a no-brainer. It provides assistive technology with a clear indication of the target URL topic. Using keyword rich text can also help search engines understand your page’s content better. For example, using “Learn more about how to create a facebook account” as opposed to, “Learn More”. This will be much more helpful, especially for those who need assistance through screen readers.
Page Load Speed
Page speed is a direct ranking factor when it comes to Google or any search engine’s algorithm but in Google’s latest algorithm update, they have made page load speeds more important than ever in the ranking process!
If you are not sure about your current page speed, Google offers a helpful Page speed insights tool. Additionally, to learn a few simple tips to increase your page load speed check out moz’s blog post about Page Speed.
Mobile First!
Page Experience
Google’s recent algorithm update also addressed some of the most important factors in ranking your website. These include: site usability and navigation, how dynamic content is (using AMP format), placement of buttons on pages – all with an eye towards making sure you’re not sacrificing quality for speed!
Creating a simple and easy-to-navigate website, while being mindful of all the information necessary is your best option to rank highly on SERP.
Video Content
Video content is not slowing down in the digital world! Wyzowl states that in 2021 87% of marketers retained a positive ROI from video marketing. For this reason, it is important to optimize your video for search
Here are a few best practices for optimizing your video for search!
- Choose 1 video hosting platform. Just like Social media, each video hosting platform optimizes for different goals. Are you optimizing for general brand awareness? YouTube and Vimeo may be your best options to explore.
- Use Video Transcripts. Not only will this increase accessibility to your content it also gives search bots more information to crawl.
- Create engaging Thumbnail Images. These thumbnails are the first impression for a user. At Wistia, they find that videos with custom human thumbnails receive a 30% higher play rate than without.
- Include targeting keywords for your Title and descriptions of the video. Ask yourself, are these clickable? Interesting enough?
- Be sure to embed the video you want ranked first on the page. When Google crawls your site for a video, it usually stops once it finds the first video!
To learn more about how to optimize your Video SEO check out Wordstreams Article: Video SEO: 9 Ways to Optimize your Video for Search.
Link Building
Link building is the key to ranking higher on search engines. It has always been important for SEO, but in recent years Google has become increasingly sophisticated at detecting unnatural links and that’s why it’s so important to stay up-to-date with the link-building trends for SEO in 2022.
There are several factors Google will look at when determining if your site is trying to build spammy or low-quality backlinks. If Google detects that you have any of these on your site, you can expect your Google rankings to plummet.
A few examples include:
– Links from hacked sites or spun content
– Link schemes such as link networks and paid links
– Low-quality article directories linking back to sales pages
For more strategies to optimize your Link Building check out Neil Patel’s blog post, Link Building Strategies and Resources for Busy Marketers.
Conclusion
With all of these SEO trends on the horizon, it’s not hard to see why marketers are feeling overwhelmed. But don’t worry! This is where we come in. You can count on our team of experts to help you stay ahead of the curve and use these new developments for your advantage. Whether you need a content strategy overhaul or an analytics audit, let us know how we can be at your service. Contact us today if any of the topics above interest you so that we can get started right away!
